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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Drizzle Glaze

Blueberries and lemons collide in this simple-to-make scone recipe. The dough itself requires just a handful of basic pantry ingredients - flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Fresh lemon zest added to the dough perfumes the scones with a hint of citrus. The addition of butter and cream make these scones super flaky and tender. Blueberries get folded in, then eventually burst into juicy perfection during baking. Once cooled, a simple powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze gets drizzled atop each scones - this is the component that really drives home the tart, zippy, citrus notes.

These scones are just divine. I kick myself every time I make these that I didn't double the recipe. Maybe that's actually a good thing. With a good dose of heavy cream and lovely little bits of real butter, they probably aren't the healthiest thing I could be eating. But, they sure are heavenly, flaky triangles of loveliness.

Regarding the blueberries, I have made this recipe with both fresh and frozen blueberries. Either works great. If I use fresh, I do pop them in the freezer for about thirty minutes prior to incorporating into the dough. This helps the blueberries "hold up" a little better during the mixing and baking process so that the dough doesn't become too discolored. If using frozen, bagged blueberries, use them straight from the freezer.

Combine the two cups of flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, salt and lemon zest in a medium mixing bowl.

Grate in the butter. {Butter should be very cold.}

Using a metal spoon, stir the mixture and use the back of the spoon to break the grated butter up into a bit smaller pieces.

Stir in one cup of heavy cream just until you can bring the dough together into a soft ball. It will still look a bit crumbly. That's what you want. Do not over mix.

Toss blueberries in a sprinkling of flour in a small bowl to coat. Add blueberries to dough.

Very gently, fold the blueberries into the dough. Some of them might not bind into the dough and will be somewhat separate. That is fine.

Turn out your dough onto a lightly-floured surface and bring together ... patting it into a circle as you go and lightly pressing any loose blueberries into the dough. You're looking for about a half-inch thickness.

Cut with a long, sharp knife as you would cut a pizza - into six or eight triangles per your size preference. Transfer triangles to a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper - keeping triangles from touching.

9 comments
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Thanks, Jodi! They were actually some of the most moist and flakiest scones I've ever had. I think the addition of both heavy cream AND butter really is what makes these so perfect! Thanks for the comment! :)

Thank you, as well, for stopping by mine! I have checked out a lot of things on your blog recently and am always impressed! By the way ... these are the best scones I have ever had! You won't be disappointed!

Would it be possible to prepare these the night before, keeping them in the fridge overnight and then baking them the next morning? This is what I do when I make cinnamon rolls but I'm not sure if the same would work in this case (baking powder vs. yeast, plus the blueberries would thaw out overnight)... :-?

I'm sure it would work ... although I have not tried it. I just saw two different flavors of scones in dough form in the refrigerated cookie dough section at the store last week. As far as the blueberries, it is recommended that they be frozen while blending them into the dough because if they were thawed at that time, all of their juices would blend into the dough and discolor it. I did a little research online after getting your question. There seems to be a total divide ... some say it works great to keep in fridge or freezer in advance while others do not recommend it. My advice is to save out 1 or 2 scones when you make them, then try it with those. That way, you have some fresh right then and don't ruin a whole batch if it turns out less than stellar. :) Thanks for your question. I will be trying it next time I whip up scones. :)

How about using dried blueberries? According to Panera Bread's website, they use dried ones in their Triple Berry Scones. I've used them in a favorite cream scone recipe I have, and find the dried ones do well.